Great writing, and spot on observations. I too came of age as a gay man in the era before the internet. I miss the fun of cruising, the excitement of chance. It wasn't nearly as efficient as a smart phone app, but the thrill of the hunt was ten times more fun.
Even Volunteer Park is pretty dead these days, after 50+ years as being a gay men's cruise spot (don't get me wrong, you can still meet guys there once the sun goes down, you just have to know where...and be very patient).
@1 Yeah. Checking out men's dicks while they're peeing isn't being gay, it's being a creep. This isn't much different than hanging around the changing rooms in the maternity section, hoping to see some nipples.
It's a shame young gay men have to be creeps to get off. Oh wait, they don't. Creeps have to be creeps to get off.
This story belongs to the same genre of black men lamenting the end of segregation. It's a better world now - stop looking back at the hateful we're leaving behind.
Wow, has the Stranger's comment threads been taken over by Santorum's followers? If the peeper was a girl, would you men think she was creepy and gross?
This is giving me flashbacks of middle school when my new friends warned me to stay away from the girl who befriended and helped me the first week in my new school, because "she'll look at you in the PE showers!". Even then I thought: why shouldn't she look? Boys are always looking; girls always checking & comparing each other's boob sizes. But my friends were the most beautiful and popular girls in school, who introduced me to my new boyfriend, the class president, he of the periwinkle eyes. And they were very good friends to me all through seven years of middle school and high school; not at all the mean girls you see in the movies, more Alicia Silverstone than Lilo. So I said, and did, nothing to stop the bullying.
Even Volunteer Park is pretty dead these days, after 50+ years as being a gay men's cruise spot (don't get me wrong, you can still meet guys there once the sun goes down, you just have to know where...and be very patient).
Great article and totally appreciated. Cheers!
It's a shame young gay men have to be creeps to get off. Oh wait, they don't. Creeps have to be creeps to get off.
This story belongs to the same genre of black men lamenting the end of segregation. It's a better world now - stop looking back at the hateful we're leaving behind.
More of a "sex life" than I had that age, and I'm straight.
This is giving me flashbacks of middle school when my new friends warned me to stay away from the girl who befriended and helped me the first week in my new school, because "she'll look at you in the PE showers!". Even then I thought: why shouldn't she look? Boys are always looking; girls always checking & comparing each other's boob sizes. But my friends were the most beautiful and popular girls in school, who introduced me to my new boyfriend, the class president, he of the periwinkle eyes. And they were very good friends to me all through seven years of middle school and high school; not at all the mean girls you see in the movies, more Alicia Silverstone than Lilo. So I said, and did, nothing to stop the bullying.
I'm so sorry, Krista.
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Sick.